Where does this question fit?

Question

I have a question but I have no idea what SE site (if any) it's applicable for.

I was watching F1 this weekend, and all the cars have sensors which send real time data about the car to the pit lane, and I was wondering how exactly it sends back the data. I'm thinking more on a general scale, what technologies could be used to send real time data between hardware rather than which specific one the F1 teams use.

Being a web developer I know of a few things which it could use but none of them are right I don't think (Ajax, Web Sockets and Server Sent Events).

Would this question fit here? Or more broadly does it fit in the SE model for questions, as I'm not sure if it could have an absolute answer.

Answer 1

It might belong here... though before asking it I'd do a bit more research before asking it to make sure it doesn't have a simple answer that really doesn't get you to learn much more.

To this particular question, the answer is likely 'the cell data network'. There are companies (example: Teletrac) that exist that provide this for fleet tracking (you've got a few dozen delivery trucks... is anyone driving too fast? or braking too hard? or taking corners too fast?) which use this data network. ^{_{Though it turns out that I was wrong... read on.}}

I'll point out that making sure that you have done the basic research and (what would seem to be) the obvious google searches is necessary. This article (incidentally very recent) which does give the answer:

This allows it to transmit data at a far higher speed than by using satellites, as F1 previously relied on, and it also significantly increases capacity.

The point I'm making is that we prefer questions that delve into the knowledge that we have rather than our google-fu.

Answer 2

I'm not sure that there is a site where such a question would be on topic.

We have a Network Engineering site and there's Server Fault, but I'm thinking you might be better off asking in one of their chat rooms as you don't have a specific question about a problem transmitting data.